


Why Her?

by capcarolsdanver



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe RPF, Real Person Fiction
Genre: Angst, College AU, F/F, Fluff, Kinda, multi-chapter, theres also alcohol consumption bc college parties
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:09:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28130694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/capcarolsdanver/pseuds/capcarolsdanver
Summary: This fic is based off a request from an anon after some speculations that have been made on my blog.Brie enlists the help of the reader to get a date with a girl that reader knows from class, only for unexpected feelings to be caught. Drama/angst/fluff to come!
Relationships: Brie Larson/You
Kudos: 86





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Part 1 of a 4 part series! This chapter is basically just an intro, setting up the story. Future chapters will be longer than this one! As always, feedback is appreciated! I have written the whole fic already but am open to any ideas you may have for this one! There's already been one rewrite for this but I'm always open to bringing more ideas to my fics if I think it will add more to the story!
> 
> Come find me on Tumblr to chat! @capcarolsdanver

You take another generous sip from the coffee cup in your hands, practically cradling it as if it’s your most prized possession. Although, that’s what you would be inclined to referred to it as in this moment. You relied on coffee during most of your days at the best of times, but even more so while you’re nursing a hangover like the one you currently have.

You groan quietly to yourself when you realise you’ve reached the last drop of your precious caffeinated drink, placing the cup on the table in front of you and dropping your head into your arms in probably the most dramatic fashion you can muster.

You vaguely acknowledge the sound of footsteps getting louder as they approach you but you quickly dismiss them as yet another student walking passed your table in the campus library and choose to ignore in favour continuing to feel sorry for yourself. You take note to never sit at one of the tables closest to the entrance again. Foot traffic has quickly become your least favourite thing.

It suddenly occurs to you that you can no longer hear the footsteps. How long had you been zoned out for? Surely whoever the footsteps belong to couldn’t have already passed you without any other sound.

“Hey Y/N, how’s it going?”

The voice beside you isn’t over the top loud or anything, but it still doesn’t stop you from jumping in your seat, your head springing up. You instantly wince, warily bringing your fingers to your temples in a useless attempt to ease your pounding headache.

The girl standing by your table, Sarah, scrunches her features in apology.

“Sorry,” she sheepishly apologises. “I _did_ see you at the party last night. Didn’t think you were much of a drinker, though.”

“I’m usually not, especially when I have class the next morning,” you grumble. “Last night was a mistake that will never happen again.”

Sarah laughs quietly, clearly trying to be mindful of your current state. “I figured I’d find you here this morning. I just have one question about class and then I promise I’ll leave you in peace and quiet again.”

“Shoot,” you say in as pleasant a tone as you can manage, deciding to spare her from your complaints about how not at all quiet the library of all places has proven to be so far that morning.

Sarah smiles a grateful smile and sits opposite you before asking a question about some paper you had received in your shared class the previous day. You can barely comprehend what she’s asking you but you answer as best as you can, which seems to be enough because Sarah is again smiling brightly and standing from her seat.

“Thanks, Y/N. I owe you one.”

“How about telling me how the hell you avoid getting a hangover. I saw you last night too. I swear you drank more than everybody else combined.”

Sarah chuckles and turns to leave. “Call it talent,” she says, waving over her shoulder as she retreats.

You wave back and watch her leave.

You wouldn’t necessarily call the two of you “friends”, but you and Sarah share an English class together and you seem to find yourself at the same get togethers and parties frequently, and had always gotten along well enough. You were sure if you actually took the time to hang out together you would probably be easy friends.

You take a heavy breath and release it when you realise you’re alone again, and just barely start feeling sorry for yourself again before a figure is slumping into the chair next to you with absolutely no consideration to your clearly less than ideal state.

You jump even more than when Sarah had startled you and your hand flies to your heart.

“Oh my god!” you exclaim. Your body was so not prepared for these kinds of interactions today.

“Sorry,” the girl says, kindly enough but with much less sincerity than Sarah. You don’t recognise her and you look at her with wide eyes, trying to figure out who she is.

“Can I help you?”

“Yes, actually,” she says, apparently missing the bite in your tone, or just choosing to ignore it. “That girl you were just talking to. You’re friends with her, right?”

You instinctively look in the direction of the main entrance, where Sarah had disappeared through just moments go.

“Uh, kinda?” You reply, unsure. “I guess. I mean, we have a class together but-“ you interrupt yourself, remembering that you have no idea who this stranger is or what she wants. “I’m sorry, what exactly do you want from me?”

“I was wondering if you could help me get a date with her.” She says it so matter-of-factly that she doesn’t seem to recognise how entirely strange her words are. All you can do is blink at her in response.

“Excuse me?”

You have never actually considered that Sarah could be interested in women. Sure, she was an attractive girl and she was always nothing but friendly to you, but for whatever reason you just weren’t interested in her in that way. And now that you think about it, you’ve never actually seen her with anyone else, not even at any of the parties you’d attended.

The girl in front of you, however, obviously _had_ considered it, and had somehow come to the conclusion that Sarah was interested in dating women.

“Do you even know her?” You ask.

“Not at all. Why do you think I’m asking for your help?”

“I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?” You have to admit that you’re still confused by her request. She seemed confident enough coming here to talk to you. So why would she need any help talking to Sarah?

“Oh, I’m like, notoriously bad at talking to women I’m interested in,” she easily explains. “I can’t flirt for the life of me and I’m way too awkward to try to convince a girl that she definitely wants to leave a party with me.”

You’re left without a response once more, blinking at the girl as she offers you a half smile and watches you. After a long moment, she seems to remember something, sitting up straighter to regard you again.

“Oh! I’m Brie by the way!” She holds out her hand towards you and you drop your eyes to stare at it for a moment, your hungover brain working at half speed before you realise she’s offering to shake your hand.

Your hand grips hers weakly and she shakes it with her own. Her handshake is firm yet gentle, though you don’t really know what to look for in a good handshake. Brie seems to hold back a laugh at the awkwardness of the situation.

“And you are…?” She regards you with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh! I’m Y/N.” You shake your head as if you were clearing the fog inside of it. “Sorry. It’s been a bit of a rough morning.” You force a chuckle. She squints her eyes at you for a moment before a look of recognition flashes across her face.

“Ah, I thought I recognised you. You were at that party last night, right?”

You look at her in surprise. Usually, no one ever seems to recognise or remember you from any of the parties you attend. You’d always been a loner to some level. Not totally socially inept but enough so that you generally flew under the radar quite easily.

You nod. “I’m sorry but I don’t remember seeing you there.”

“Yeah, by the time I showed up you seemed pretty plastered,” she chuckles and your cheeks immediately flush. You hadn’t meant to drink so much the previous night, but what started out as a couple of drinks had very quickly multiplied the more you had allowed yourself to wallow in your own self pity. You uncharacteristically had let the fact that you were at yet another party alone get to you.

Brie seems to notice your discomfort because she thankfully has the decency to move the conversation on fairly quickly.

“So, you think you can help me?”

You’d completely forgotten the reason why she had even started talking to you in the first place, but your brain eventually catches up and your eyebrows lift when you remember her request.

“Oh. Um…”

“Okay, listen,” Brie interrupts, watching you with amusement in her eyes. “I’ve gotta go. But if you decide you might want to help me, here’s my number.”

She grabs the notebook that you forgot you even had open in front of you and slides it across the table towards herself. She quickly scribbles her phone number in the corner of the open page and slides the notebook back towards you.

Brie stands up, considering you for a moment before she reaches into her bag that’s slung over her shoulder. You’re still several steps behind, looking down at the set of numbers she had written in your notebook, when she drops two aspirins in front of you. You startle, looking up at her and finding her smirking down at you.

“Take these, they’ll make you feel better. And maybe they'll convince you to help me, too,” she says, barely giving you a second to respond before she, too, is leaving you alone at the table.

You sit in stunned silence for a few moments until your eyes drift towards the large clock on the wall opposite you and you catch sight of the time. If you don’t leave now, you’ll definitely be late for your first class of the day. You half consider your options, wondering how much you’d really miss if you just skipped one class in favour of going back to your dorm to nap.

Eventually you let out a deep sigh and stand up, knowing you’ll just end up beating yourself up later if you let yourself miss a class because of your poor choices from the previous night. You quickly throw your belonging into your book bag, only pausing to look at the two aspirins Brie had left for you. You pick them up and quickly swallow them down with a gulp of water from your water bottle before you’re rushing out of the library doors and towards your class.


	2. Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second instalment of Why Her? is here! Much longer than part 1! As always, I look forward to hearing your feedback, so please let me know what you think about anything. Particularly for this one, this is one of the first times I’ve written text messaging into a story and the way I ended up having to change my original formatting for it. Does this section of the story still read smoothly? Thank you and I hope you all enjoy!
> 
> Please do not repost my writing anywhere without my permission.
> 
> Come find me on Tumblr to chat! @capcarolsdanver

You stare up at the ceiling from your spot on your bed. Thankfully, after the somewhat eventful morning you had, the rest of your day had been pretty low-key, and a calm day combined with the aspirins Brie had given you had you feeling much more like yourself by the time your last class had been dismissed.

You still feel that deep feeling of exhaustion from a late night of drinking and dealing with the consequential hangover, but at least your brain is back to it’s regular working order, giving you a chance to finally replay the unexpected chat you’d had with a total stranger that morning.

It was a ridiculous request she had asked of you. Absolutely _ludicrous_ , in fact. You still can’t for the life of you figure out why Brie had sought _you_ of all people out to help her, but you also can’t help but feel intrigued about the situation. On top of that, there’s something else you can’t quite comprehend that’s making you feel kind of compelled to help the girl.

You sigh heavily and reach into your jeans pocket, pulling out the small slip of paper you had torn out of your notebook earlier. You only look at it for another second longer before you grab your phone and add the number into your contacts. You type out a new text and hit send before you can even think about it.

" _What’s in it for me?”_

You drop your phone on the bed next to you, though you might as well have held on to it because it’s only a matter of seconds before your phone pings, signalling a new text. You pick up the phone again and glance at the screen.

_"I don’t know, I suppose it depends on who this is and what you’re talking about…”_

You mentally facepalm at your mistake, quickly tapping out another text.

_“Sorry! It’s Y/N. You talked to me at the library this morning?”_

This time you keep hold of your phone, expecting another quick reply.

_“Oh, right! I should have known it was you. I don’t have a habit of handing my phone number out to people who I just meet, I swear!”_

You smile, tapping out another response.

_“Well that is why you need my help, right?”_

_“Ha ha. Very funny.”_

You chuckle slightly, probably the first time all day you’ve even come close to laughing, and before you can reply again the bubbles indicating that Brie is typing another message pop up on your screen.

_“So how’s the hangover treating you now?”_

_“Hangover is all but gone now. Thanks for the aspirin by the way”_

_“No problem. Let’s count that as just one thing”_

Your brow furrows in confusion as you read her text, clearly missing something.

_“One thing?”_

_“One thing that’s in it for you if you help me”_

You roll your eyes, but can’t stop yourself from chuckling at her message. You’re startled when barely a second later your phone starts ringing, and you’re quick to sit up from your reclined position on your bed and tap the answer button, pressing your phone to your ear.

“Hello?”

“I figured this would be easier,” Brie says in lieu of a greeting. “Are you busy tomorrow?”

“Um. Why?” You say dumbly. You’re usually much more articulate when you speak to people, but so far you’re yet to show that to Brie.

“Can I buy you breakfast?” You’re silent, considering her offer, and she jumps in quickly again when she must misinterpret your pause as something else. “You know, so we can strategise.”

“ _Strategise?_ ” you ask with a lilt to your voice. “What is this, some covert mission?”

“Come on, just humour me,” Brie replies. “I’ve never done anything like this before. I figured some planning can’t hurt, right?”

“I guess not…” you say unconvincingly, still entirely too unsure about the whole situation.

“Breakfast will be my treat. Count that as another thing to add to the “what’s in it for you” list.” Brie’s voice takes on a pleading tone and you sigh, running your fingers through your hair.

Despite your better judgement, you’re only silent another beat before you’re accepting her breakfast proposal. “Fine. Breakfast it is.”

————————

You stand outside the entrance of the small diner where you and Brie had agreed to meet for breakfast that morning. You’ve never been her before, though Brie had convinced you to give the place a go, singing her praises for the small diner that she apparently frequented often.

You glance in through the windows to see if you can spot Brie but the glare against the windows from the sun makes it impossible. You let out a quiet sigh and push the door open, stepping into the building.

Surveying the interior of the diner, you’re met with the overwhelming and inviting scent of coffee, something you desperately crave in the mornings. You notice a waitress behind the counter towards the back of the diner, and she smiles and nods towards you in greeting before turning to talk to one of her co-workers near the open doorway to the kitchen.

“Y/N, over here!” you hear and your head snaps to the direction of the voice. Brie is seated at a booth near the corner of the diner and she eagerly waves you over. She grins at you as you approach the table and sit down opposite her.

“Well, _someone_ seems awfully chipper this morning,” you say in greeting. You do try for a light tone, though your words come out as more of a grumble. Mornings were never really your thing. No matter how many morning classes you attend, you never seem to get used to being expected to function so early in the day.

Brie watches you, clearly stifling a laugh, though she doesn’t hide her amusement when you squint your eyes at her in a glare.

“Something funny?”

“No, of course not,” she says, but does little to hide how much she is apparently enjoying your suffering. Not that you’re being dramatic or anything. She looks off in the direction of the counter and captures the attention of the waitress who you had seen when you walked in.

“We better get you some coffee before you do something crazy, like murder me or something.” When your face scrunches up in question at her words she shrugs, her eyes cautiously scanning you. “You kind of have this look that tells me you hate my guts for making you wake up too early to come have breakfast with me.”

“Sorry,” you say, trying to relax your facial features and drop the scowl that is apparently a permanent fixture on your face every day before your first cup of coffee. “I’m not really a morning person.”

Brie breathes out a laugh. “Yeah, I kind of figured that one out on my own. I’ve known you barely 24 hours and both times we’ve spoken face to face I’ve worried you would bite my head off for talking to you so early in the day.”

“Hey, that’s not fair! I was hungover yesterday. Nothing I said or did should go towards your opinion of me as a person.” You notice too late that the waitress, whose name tag says “Dani”, is now standing by your table. Her eyes are filled with just as much amusement as Brie’s and you smile sheepishly at her, realising that she’d caught your small outburst.

“Morning, Brie,” she says, though her eyes remain on you. “I see you’ve got a friend with you today.” You feel your cheeks heat up with embarrassment and you have to consciously stop yourself from shrinking down into the booth.

“I do. Dani, meet Y/N. She desperately needs coffee.” Dani laughs and you shoot a glare at Brie, though she isn’t wrong.

“Coffee coming right up. Any food?”

You realise that in your non-morning person brood, you haven’t taken even a glance at the menu yet, but your empty stomach tells you that you don’t want to dismiss Dani without placing your breakfast order first.

Brie watches your silent dilemma and catches your eye. “The pancakes here are amazing. Especially their blueberry pancakes. They may be my favourite food.”

Your stomach loudly grumbles and your face flushes in embarrassment again. “Well apparently my stomach thinks pancakes sound good,” you mumble when the other two women laugh, though not unkindly, at your stomach’s interruption.

“Okay, so two stacks of blueberry pancakes and two coffees?” Dani asks and Brie nods in confirmation.

“Thanks, Dani,” she says and the waitress smiles and spins around, making her way back to the counter. You don’t even realise your eyes are following her as she saunters away until the sound of a throat being cleared brings your attention back to Brie.

“See something you like?” she teases.

You drop your eyes to the table, annoyed at the amount of embarrassment you’ve already experienced today.

“Hey,” Brie says. You see her hand reach across the table, though it stops short of meeting your own hand and she rests it on the table between the two of you. You look up and you’re surprised by how serious she looks. “I’m just teasing, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” you say, acknowledging how sincere her apology seems to be. You drop you gaze again, her eye contact too intense to maintain in the moment. You can practically feel her eyes all over you, carefully looking you over.

“I didn’t know you were into girls,” you hear her say, though it’s so quiet that you have to glance up again to make sure you hadn’t just been hearing things.

“Why would you? We literally only just met.” You shrug with as much nonchalance as you can muster. You don’t generally care when people learn about your sexuality. It’s not something you hide, though it’s also not something you confidently broadcast either. You were always cautious of people’s reactions, and unfortunately during your time in college you have dealt with some bad apples who have given you hell for it. At least the majority seemed to accept it perfectly fine, though.

“I know, but my gaydar is usually pretty on point. I can’t believe I didn’t see it. I mean, look at how you’re dressed.” She gestures at your clothes and you glance down at the patterned button up shirt you had lazily thrown over the top of a white singlet that morning, which is paired with your favourite pair of jeans.

You know the way you dress isn’t typically “feminine”. You’ve had comments from friends, and even strangers, about your not-so-straight fashion sense. In fact, you’re pretty surprised that just yesterday, she was so confident that Sarah is attracted to women that she had approached you to help her get a date with her, despite not even knowing Sarah. Yet she apparently hadn’t even considered that you could also be into women.

Though, to have her scrutinising your outfit of the day while she sits directly in front of you makes you a little uncomfortable and you squirm under the heavy gaze of her eyes on you.

“So, you wanted to make a plan?” you ask, pulling her attention away from you for the moment.

————————

“Here you go.”

You look up from your spot on the uncomfortable couch you find yourself sitting on. Brie holds out the drink she had promised you and you gratefully take it from her.

“Thanks,” you say. Brie drops onto the couch next to you and her disruption threatens to spill your newly acquired drink, but you manage to balance it enough to keep the contents of your cup from spilling over the edges.

You take a sip and Brie watches as your eyes widen and you almost wince when you swallow the liquid. “Wow,” you cough out.

Brie laughs. “I thought you’d probably appreciate a strong drink seeing as I dragged you to a party you didn’t want to come to tonight.”

“Well, you thought right,” you laugh, and feeling brave, you go for another sip of the drink. You can’t help the wince this time. Brie grins widely at you in response and takes a sip of her own drink.

“Any sign of her yet?” Brie asks.

“Not yet.” You shake your head and turn your eyes back to the open doorway that you have been diligently watching since basically the moment you took your spot on the couch.

You had only arrived at the party minutes earlier, and it’s still only early, but the crowd have already significantly grown in size since Brie left you alone to get the two of you your drinks.

You and Brie had planned to come here together after she had somehow found out that Sarah was planning on attending. You had begrudgingly agreed. The last party you attended was a good few days ago now, and this one thankfully won’t be followed by another school day. But you still feel like you have sleep to catch up on, and you certainly aren’t going to be able to do that when you’re being dragged along to more of these parties by Brie.

You turn your head away from the door to look at Brie. You actually take her in for the first time that night. She’s dressed in a pale blue a-line dress that suits her really well and her hair is up in a bun, a few strands loose around her face. She effortlessly looks beautiful.

You personally had opted for a more casual look, knowing that you weren’t coming here to impress anyone tonight. You’re wearing your favourite pair of jeans and a grey shirt. Simple enough to pass as a reasonably acceptable outfit for a college party.

Brie seems more anxious than you’ve ever seen her, although you can tell she’s trying to cover that up with all kinds of fake confidence. She still can’t seem to control the bounce of her knees though, and her eyes scan practically every person that walks passed you.

“How you doing over there?” You ask.

“Hm?” Brie turns to you. She’s nervously biting her lip and you can’t help it when your eyes drop to the action on their own accord. You catch yourself after a second and quickly meet Brie’s eyes again.

You internally scold yourself. Now wasn’t the time to let your mind get any ideas about Brie, especially while you’re at a party with the sole purpose of helping her get with some other girl.

“You seem nervous,” you tell her.

“I do? Shit,” she frowns. “I was going for confident.”

“Wow, you really weren’t lying when you said you struggled with talking to women you were interested in, huh?” You barely stifle a laugh, though you do feel a little guilty when she defensively shoots you a glare.

“Don’t be a dick,” she pouts. “I told you that’s why I need your help.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” you say, hoping she can pick up on the sincerity of your words. “I’ve just never seen you this nervous. I thought you were exaggerating.”

“I wasn’t exaggerating,” she says unnecessarily and huffs out a breath. You can feel her anxiety climbing by the second and her eyes still continue darting around at all the partygoers as they walk by. You realise it’s up to you to try to calm her down.

“Brie, hey,” you say, surprising even yourself with the gentle tone your voice drops to. When she doesn’t look at you, you drop your hand to her bouncing knee, settling it. Her eyes land on the contact before she looks up at you. “Why don’t you have a drink to calm your nerves a bit?”

“Right,” she says when you gesture to the drink in her hands that she’d apparently forgotten about. She lifts the cup to her lips and gulps down almost all of it at once. She winces a little, so you assume she’s made her drink just as strong as yours as well.

“Better?” You ask. She shrugs a little in response.

“I guess we’ll see.” She breathes in deeply, slowly releasing the air from her lungs in an effort to further calm herself down. You can feel her knee begin to bounce again underneath your hand, and you’re immediately reminded that you had never removed it from her leg.

Going against your initial impulse to yank your hand away from her skin, you choose instead to squeeze her knee. It promptly stops moving again and you purposefully avoid making eye contact when you feel her eyes land on you again.

“Let’s just keep talking to keep your mind busy, okay?” You say, and when you see her nod in your peripheral you continue. “So, we’ve talked a few times now but I still have no idea what you do,” you state, though you trail off and pose it almost like a question, prompting her to fill in the gaps.

“I’m an actor,” she says, and you almost give yourself whiplash from how quickly you turn to her in surprise. Her eyes widen at your sudden movement.

“Wait, you’re an _actor_? Shouldn’t you be able to, like, _act_ confident when you’re talking to someone you’re interested in or something?”

“It doesn’t quite work like that,” she grumbles, finishing what remains of her drink in one more gulp and dropping her cup onto the coffee table in front of you. “Put me in front of a camera and I can pretend to be an entirely different person, but it doesn’t work the same way for me in my own life.”

“I can totally start following you around with a camera if that’ll help,” you joke lightly in an effort to lighten Brie’s mood. You instead receive a glare from her, though you do think you see a hint of a smile on her lips before she faces away from you. That hint of a smile, however, is quickly wiped from her face as you see her eyes lock onto something ahead of her.

“Oh shit,” Brie blurts out. “She’s here.”

Your eyes follow Brie’s line of sight and spot Sarah across the room. She already has a drink in her hand and she’s laughing amidst a group of her friends that you vaguely recognise. You wonder how long she’s been at the party for, and how both you and Brie managed to miss her entrance.

“Are you gonna go talk to her?”

“What?!” Brie asking incredulously, looking at you like you’re crazy for a moment before she looks back at Sarah. “No, we talked about this, remember? You’re supposed to introduce us.”

“Oh, right. Your super vague plan,” you titter, taking a sip of your drink and watching in amusement as Brie expectantly shoots you yet another glare.

“It’s not a _super vague_ plan. It’s a step-by-step,” she stubbornly explains in defence, which makes you laugh more fully.

“A step-by-step? First step; I introduce the two of you,” you bring your hand up to your chin and look up as if deep in thought. “Remind me what the next steps are, again?”

“Shut up,” she sulks, weakly nudging you. “I’ve never done this before. I figured we’d just take it one step at a time.”

“Well that’s definitely the best way to describe whatever this plan is,” you chuckle. “One step at a time.” You finally reach the bottom of your drink and discard the empty cup next to Brie’s.

You take another glance in Sarah’s direction and notice that she’s slightly separated herself from the large group of people she was standing amongst before, talking to a smaller number of them. It leaves a perfect opportunity for you and Brie to approach her. You turn to Brie to tell her, surprised to find her eyes already trained on you.

“What?” you say self consciously, a feeling you’re not typically used to.

She clears her throat slightly and looks down at her hands. “Nothing,” she says, shaking her head a little. Her eyes lift to meet yours again and you struggle to maintain the strange intensity of her gaze. “I just wanted to thank you for doing all of this for me.”

“It’s no problem,” you say dismissively. You feel your cheeks flush for no reason in particular and you squirm a little under her gaze. “Should we go talk to her then?” You nod your head in Sarah’s direction and you feel the heaviness of Brie’s stare leave you.

“Okay,” she nods and you stand from the couch, taking the lead as you start walking towards Sarah. Brie follows closely behind. You’re unsure if it’s because her nerves are returning or because she doesn’t want to risk losing you in the ridiculously thick crowd you now have to manoeuvre through, but she maintains the tight distance between you.

When you finally reach the other side of the room you see Sarah leaning against the wall, drink in hand as she absentmindedly listens to whatever one of her friends is rambling about.

“Hey, Sarah,” you say, although it’s more like a shout over the music. Sarah curiously looks in your direction and spots you, her face lighting up with a grin.

“Y/N! Hi!” She quickly says something to her friends and steps away to join you, greeting you with a friendly hug. The interaction only catches you off guard a little. “I didn’t know you’d be here,” she says when she pulls away from you.

“Yeah, I decided to come last minute,” you explain. “I actually brought a friend with me.” You expectantly turn to Brie, silently urging her to step forward from where she was awkwardly lingering behind you. “This is Brie. Brie, this is Sarah.”

Sarah’s bright smile remains on her face when she regards Brie. “It’s nice to meet you, Brie!” She doesn’t go so far as to hug Brie as she did with you, but she does offer her hand to Brie. Much like you when Brie had offered her hand to you in the library the other day, Brie seems to be a step behind as she looks down at Sarah’s hand for a long moment. Her brain eventually catches up and she rushes to grab Sarah’s hand with her own.

The handshake is awkward at best, but Sarah easily lets the moment pass. “So how do you ladies know each other?”

You and Brie share a quick look and both begin stumbling over your words, but you’re luckily saved from any further embarrassment when a guy from Sarah’s friend group calls her name, pulling her attention away for a second. He gestures for her to join the group again and she nods at him, turning back to you and Brie.

“Well, I hate to cut this short, but I’m being beckoned,” she says with a playful roll of her eyes. “I’ll catch up with you guys later on?” She asks.

“Yeah, for sure,” you say. “See you later.”

“It was nice meeting you,” Brie blurts out. It takes more energy than you’re willing to admit to keep from laughing at her. To Sarah’s credit, she smiles back at Brie kindly.

“You too,” she says, and then she’s turning on her heels to join her friends again.

“Oh my god,” Brie says, facepalming. “I literally only talked to her for less than a minute and I managed to make a fool of myself.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” you try to reason.

“Are you kidding? That was a disaster.”

“It’s okay. One step at a time, right?” Brie reluctantly lowers her hands from her face to look at you. “We just have to figure out the next step now,” you shrug.

“I guess.” She groans, and with one last fleeting look towards Sarah, she faces you again. “Are you ready to go?”

“You don’t want to stay a little longer? Sarah said she would find us later on.” Honestly, you’ve been more than ready to leave the party since you arrived, but you also feel bad for Brie. It’s obvious that she’s internally berating herself and you don’t want her to leave the party early if she wants to try redeeming herself tonight.

“Nah, I think I’ve done enough damage tonight,” she laughs self-deprecatingly. “Come on, I know you don’t want to be here either.”

She walks towards the open door and you have no choice but to follow her, catching up with her once she’s already outside. You walk silently along the empty road together, both deep in thought. The silence of the night is more pronounced now that you aren’t surrounding by blaring music and loud shouting.

Your mind runs wild, going from topic to topic. You vaguely wonder if you’re heading in the direction of your dorm building, and then you’re wondering what time it is. And then finally, your mind lands on something that seems to come out of nowhere.

“Why her?” You suddenly ask, not entirely sure where the question comes from. Though now that the words are out of your mouth, you realise that you are eager to hear her response.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean… why her?” You repeat. “I get it, I do. But you barely know her. You only talked to her for the first time tonight.”

The words seemingly slip out of your mouth without your permission, and in the back of your mind you wonder if the drink Brie had made you was even stronger than you first thought. Brie opens her mouth and closes it a few times, her pace slowing slightly before she eventually looks at you again.

“I don’t know,” she shrugs. “I’ve seen her at a couple of these parties now and she just always seems to catch my eye.” She seems to search for more words and she comes to a halt on the side of the road, causing you to stop too.

“Why not her?” She eventually says.

You end up contemplating her question for the rest of the night.


	3. Part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 3 is here! Apologies for the slight delay but I am hoping to have the next and final part out very soon! As always, any feedback is appreciated very much so please share any thoughts you have with me! Enjoy!
> 
> Please do not repost my writing anywhere without my permission.
> 
> Come find me on Tumblr to chat! @capcarolsdanver

“Wait, you’ve never seen Star Wars?!”

Brie has to literally shout for you to hear her over the loud thumping of the music that fills the room around you, though her apparent outrage at your new admission is evident. You shake your head and laugh as she continues to look at you incredulously.

“ _None_ of them?”

You take a brief glance around to see if anyone else is paying attention to the outburst you’re being subjected to, though none of your fellow partygoers seem to pay you or Brie any mind.

“Nope,” you confirm again. Brie stares at you in disbelief for a few more seconds, almost as if she is personally offended by your revelation. In fact, the longer she stares at you, the more you’re convinced that she does feel personally offended.

“Well, we’re gonna have to fix that, then,” she says with such determination that you’re actually a little worried what she would do if you tried to disagree with her.

Since you had first introduced Brie to Sarah about two weeks ago, you both have attended another two parties together, this being the second. During those two weeks, you and Brie have grown a lot closer, texting each other constantly and even hanging out every couple of days. Of course, you’re still helping her with Sarah, and you have to remind yourself of that every now and again.

It’s hard for you to admit to yourself that Brie is probably the person you are the closest to now when you are highly aware that the reason for that is because you’re trying to help her get another girl. Who knows how Brie views your relationship, and who knows what will happen between the two of you when she does inevitably get that date with Sarah.

You’re pulled from the rabbit hole your thoughts had managed to take you down when Sarah herself suddenly appears in front of you and Brie.

“Oh my god, I’m running into you guys _again_?!” She exclaims instead of a more formal greeting, a large grin on her face.

“Small world,” you reply, and return the warm hug that Sarah envelops you in, a greeting that you’ve grown used to from Sarah. You watch her then turn to Brie and crush her in a hug too. You would laugh at the sudden shock and panic evident on Brie’s face if it weren’t for the uncomfortable feeling that hits your entire body at that very moment.

Brie is late to wrap her own arms around Sarah, who seems entirely unfazed by Brie’s awkwardness as she steps back again to regard you both. You notice that her skin is flushed, the expression on her face perhaps a little _too_ laidback, and she takes a large sip from the cup that you only now realise she’s holding.

Sarah is drunk. _Very_ drunk, if the slight sway of her body despite her standing in one spot is any indication.

She surveys the space around her, her body dramatically twisting around with the movement, and she looks back at you and Brie with excitement in her eyes.

“Let’s dance!” She proclaims eagerly. You and Brie share a quick look while Sarah downs the rest of her drink and unceremoniously drops her plastic cup to the ground. She grabs you both and drags you towards the overcrowded group of people who appear to be attempting to move in sync to the beat. Although, it looks like most are too drunk, or just simply have no sense of rhythm whatsoever.

Sarah doesn’t give you a chance to protest before she joins the flock of people and starts moving her body to the music. You hazard a glance at Brie, who still looks shell-shocked at the sudden turn of events. You also can’t help but notice the distinct direction of Brie’s gaze, her eyes obviously landing on Sarah’s ass as she dances in front of you, seemingly in her own world. That same uncomfortable feeling washes over you again and you frown at whatever reaction your body seems to be having without your permission.

You purposefully advert your gaze from the scene unfolding in front of you. Suddenly feeling like a major third wheel, you decide that maybe it’s a good time to leave Sarah and Brie on their own. You can’t be a buffer between them forever after all.

Without another glance at either of the two girls, you turn away from them and begin pushing through the thick crowd of people towards a more open space. You noticed earlier that the house has a wrap-around porch. Maybe you can go there for some fresh air now.

On your way, your arm catches on something, or more accurately, _someone._ You’re pulled to a stop a you let out a deep sigh, getting ready to ward off any unwanted to advances from some drunk frat boy that you expect to find attached to you.

You turn around in a flash, your deep scowl quickly fading from your face when you realise that it’s Brie who has a hold of your arm. You freeze, watching her. Her eyes move over you, her features laced with concern and she tightens her grip on you, leaning her body towards you. She stops once her face is practically right next to your ear so you can hear her.

“Are you okay?” She asks. Despite having to somewhat raise her voice still, her tone is surprisingly gentle. You realise you aren’t actually sure how to answer her question. It’s obvious you’re going through some kind of emotional reaction, though you aren’t quite sure what to make of it just yet.

Brie waits a long beat, and when you don’t answer she leans back so she can look at you again. She observes you for another few moments before she seems to make up her mind about something, her hand dropping from your forearm to your hand.

“Come on,” she says and tugs you to walk with her towards the porch you originally were headed towards.

She pushes the sliding door open and shuts it again when you have both made it outside and you’re surprised by how much the door drowns out the sound of the ridiculously loud music. Suddenly in a much more open, quiet space, you feel like you can actually breathe again.

“What’s wrong?” She asks. She’s still watching you carefully, and you begin to wonder just how fragile you must look given her reaction. Damn your stupid emotions. “Did something happen?”

“No,” you breathe out, shaking your head, willing this rogue feeling inside of you to go away. “I’m fine.” You lock eyes with her in an attempt to convince her. Judging from the expression on her face, you don’t do a great job of that.

It’s silent for another minute when something suddenly crosses your mind. “Wait, why did you come after me? You had Sarah dancing basically on top of you.” This time it’s her turn to drop eye contact and she shrugs lightly.

“I was worried about you.” You’re taken aback by how sincerely she speaks. “I mean, you just up and left.”

In truth, you hadn’t even expected her to notice your absence after you saw the way she was watching Sarah. The fact that she immediately realised you’d left and then followed you to make sure you were okay is actually remarkable to you, considering the circumstances.

“Well I’m okay,” you assure her, squeezing the hand that’s still clasped in your own before letting go and dropping your own hand back to your side. “You wanna go find her again?” You nod behind you towards the door and Brie’s eyes follow, glancing passed your shoulder.

She considers it for a second before shaking her head. “No, it’s okay.” You blink at her, not expecting that. She notices your surprise and jumps back in to explain herself further. “It’s getting pretty late now so I think it’s a good time to go. Besides, she’s drunk. She probably still hasn’t realised we’ve left her on the dance floor yet.”

You laugh at that, figuring that she could actually be right. Sarah did seem pretty out of it. You doubt she’ll remember much of tonight.

You agree with Brie, eager to leave the party as well. Brie walks with you back to your dorm, which is thankfully only a short walk, before you bid her farewell and watch her walk in the direction of her own apartment.

————————

The following Friday, you’re trying to force your brain to pay attention in your morning class when you phone vibrates on your desk, easily pulling your attention away from your professor.

You see a new text from Brie waiting for you.

_“Are you free tonight?”_

You sigh, expecting yet another invite to a party to help Brie out with Sarah. You personally haven’t heard anything about any parties she’d be attending that night, but maybe Brie had.

_“I don’t have any grand plans if that’s what you’re asking”_

You don’t even bother to put your phone back down. You’ve learnt by now that Brie is a quick replier.

_“Okay great!! Movie night??”_

You stare down at your phone for far too long. It definitely had not been the text you were expecting from her. You of course consider Brie at least a close friend at this point, but you weren’t sure Brie considered anything similar about you.

_“Where?”_

_“How about my apartment?”_

Again, you’re slightly surprised. Over the admittedly short few weeks of friendship you and Brie share together, Brie had only seen your dorm room once when you had to run back up there after forgetting something before one of the parties you’d gone to. You still haven’t even seen the building that Brie lives in.

You consider your answer for a moment. It briefly occurs to you that this might just end up being another planning session, but the prospect of spending more time with Brie has you agreeing before you really even give yourself time to think too much about it.

_“Sure”_

————————

You stare at the apartment door, feeling uncharacteristically nervous. Though, it seems to be a more and more common feeling the longer whatever you have with Brie goes on. You step forward to knock on the door and then step back, surveying the hallway while you wait.

There’s nothing out of the ordinary, and you find yourself feeling glad that Brie is living in what seems to be a clean, safe apartment building. You had admittedly been worried when you first arrived, as the building itself doesn’t seem to have any lock or security feature to stop strangers from waltzing into the building whenever they please. Those fears seem to dissipate slightly, though, when you see no reason to worry by the state of the interior of the building thus far.

An older woman steps out of her own apartment a few doors over and notices you, offering you a smile before heading in the opposite direction down the hall. The people here seem nice, too.

The door in front of you swings open and Brie is greeting you with a wide smile.

“Hey!” She pulls you into a hug. You’re not quite expecting it but you happily return the hug. “Come in,” she says and steps back to give you room to walk through the doorway and into her apartment.

It’s not the greatest apartment you’ve ever seen, but it’s a major improvement over the tiny shoebox you call a dorm room. The apartment is mostly one big open space, the kitchen to the left of the entrance and the living area to the right. It looks like there’s a small hallway straight ahead that must lead to the bedroom and bathroom.

“It’s not much,” she says, watching you take in the new space around you.

“I love it!” You reply, shooting a reassuring smile her way before you continue scanning the apartment. You can see that her living room area to the far right is perfectly set up for movie-watching, with a ridiculously comfortable looking couch, a couple of bean bags and some plush throw blankets neatly folded over the back of the couch.

She also has a couple of gaming consoles and their respective games all stacked neatly within the TV cabinet underneath her large television. You smile at the insane amount of Nintendo games you see.

What an absolute dork you’ve managed to make friends with.

“Did you bring popcorn?” She excitedly asks, noticing the bag of microwave popcorn in your hand that you’d bought on your way to her place. She grabs it from you and looks at the bag to confirm what it is.

“Of course,” you nod. “What would a movie night be without popcorn?”

“I like the way you think,” she laughs, dropping the bag on the kitchen counter. “I’ve ordered some pizza too, so once that gets here we can officially start the night!”

You silently thank whatever higher power is out there when you realise that Brie appears to be planning on taking the night off of the whole Sarah thing too.

She walks over to the couch and drops down onto it and you join her, sitting towards the other side of the couch. You’re unsure of the appropriate distance you should sit from her so decide on a relatively safe distance. Not too far but not too close. The couch is just as comfortable as it looks and you practically melt into it.

“So what are we watching?” You ask and Brie hits you with an expectant look, as if you should know the answer already.

“Star Wars, obviously. Duh,” she says matter-of-factly. “I told you I’d make you watch them.” You snort at her how serious she turns at the mention of Star Wars, and raise your hands defensively in front of you.

“Okay, okay. Star Wars it is. I’m too scared to try to make you put something else on.”

Her serious look suddenly brightens and she smirks at you. “That’s what I thought,” she says in a playfully menacing kind of way and you chuckle at her.

Yep, an absolute dork.

There’s a knock on at the door that grabs your attention and Brie jumps up to her feet again.

“Must be the pizza! Gimme one sec.”

Brie hurries off to the door and answers it, chatting politely to the delivery guy on the other side of the door, and a moment later she closes the door again and walks back over to the couch, looking all kinds of pleased with herself over the pizza in her hands.

She throws open the pizza box and eagerly grabs a slice, taking a bite. You grab your own slice as well, just as eager as Brie. While she continues munching on her pizza, she grabs her TV remote and gets the movie ready.

“Are you ready for the most incredible cinematic experience of your life?”

You roll your eyes at her playfully and hold back a laugh at the intense look on her face. “Just play the damn thing, would you?” You say, which does earn you a glare from Brie, but she decides not to retaliate in favour of playing the movie. She puts on _A New Hope_.

To your surprise, you actually do enjoy the film. Although, you do have to ask a lot of questions throughout the entire thing to understand everything that’s going on. To Brie’s credit, though, she doesn’t seem at all annoyed by your non-stop questions. She seems more happy that you’re actually trying to pay attention and understand it than anything.

“So?! What did you think?” Brie asks when the credits start rolling, turning to you and expectantly awaiting your response.

“I liked it,” you confirm, smiling when Brie grins at you. “But where was the little green guy? Isn’t he, like, one of the main characters?”

Brie’s grin drops so quickly that you almost flinch. “ _The little green guy?!_ ” She exclaims. “You mean _Yoda_?”

“Yeah, him!” You light up with recognition of his name. Brie looks completely dumbfounded.

“I can’t believe you forgot Yoda’s name. _Everyone_ knows who Yoda is.” She shakes her head at you, truly looking speechless. “Luckily for you, he’s in _Empire Strikes Back_.” You blink at her, a completely blank look on your face, and she narrows her eyes at you. “It’s the next movie in the series,” she explains.

You nod your head in understanding, quietly enjoying how frustrated she seems to be getting by your complete lack of knowledge of all things Star Wars.

“Let me go get some popcorn ready and then we’ll put it on,” she says and stands from the couch again. “Do you want anything else?”

“No thanks, I’m good,” you smile and watch her head to the kitchen.

Your attention is pulled away when you hear your phone vibrate on the couch beside you. You pick it up and check your new notification, frowning at the screen.

It’s an invite to some last minute party one of your peers has decided to throw tonight. You do get these kinds of invites a lot, and you know practically the entire student body usually gets sent the same invite, so you quickly click on the link to take you to the event page for the party.

You click on the list of people who have confirmed their attendance and you feel your frown deepen when you see Sarah on that list.

Brie returns to the couch where you’re still staring at your phone and notices the frown on your face before she even sits back down.

“Is everything okay?” She asks.

“Hm?” You look up at her, snapping yourself back into reality. “Oh. Yeah.” You sigh before aiming the phone screen in her general direction. “Turns out someone’s throwing a party tonight.” You try to add some kind of lilt to your voice but you know it falls flat.

“Oh,” Brie says, barely paying any mind to your phone screen before flopping back down onto the couch, closer to you now than she was before. She looks remarkably unbothered by the event page open on your phone.

“Looks like Sarah is gonna be there,” you say, studying her face. All she does is nod vaguely at your words, and then she’s picking up her TV remote again like she doesn’t even register what you’ve said.

“Okay, are you ready for Episode V?” You blink at her for a moment, watching for any kind of rogue emotion on her face, but seeing no signs of any.

“You don’t want to go to the party?”

“Not really,” she shrugs with one shoulder. “I’d honestly rather we just stay here tonight.” Her eyes flick over to you, showing the first signs of emotion you’ve seen since you brought up the party. “Did _you_ want to go?”

“No,” you easily answer, and you mentally scold yourself for answering so quickly, but your answer seems to please Brie. You notice the hint of a smile at the corner of her lips and she looks back at the TV.

“Good,” she mutters. She presses play on the movie and leans back into the couch, offering the bowl of popcorn out to you. You grab some and find yourself leaning back and making yourself more comfortable, too.

You let yourself forget about the party, at least for now. If Brie would really rather stay here watching movies with you instead of dragging you along to yet another party so you can help her talk to another girl, then by all means you’re thrilled to go along with it.

You still have more questions to ask throughout the movie so you can follow along, but you do at times find yourself a little distracted by the gap between yours and Brie’s bodies that seems to be growing smaller and smaller as the movie goes on.

By the time you’re halfway through watching _Return of the Jedi_ , your thigh is pressed against Brie’s and her head is resting on your shoulder, tucked slightly into your neck. You realise she’s asleep somewhere towards the end of the movie, and it’s not long after that you find yourself drifting to sleep too.

————————

You wake up the next morning to sunlight filtering in through the windows, pleasantly warming your skin as it reaches you. You let out a content sigh, stretching your arms out and snuggling further into the throw blanket that’s been draped over you.

Your eyes suddenly open the second you remember where you are. You’re alone on the couch now, lying down, no longer in the seated position you remember being in last night. You sit up, glancing around Brie’s apartment from your spot on the couch.

Everything seems very still, and you wait for any signs of someone else in the apartment, only to be met with complete silence. You stand up from the couch, dropping the blanket back down and take careful steps through the apartment, almost too scared to disrupt the quiet of the morning.

You don’t exactly feel comfortable making yourself at home by walking through Brie’s apartment wherever you like, but you do glance down the hallway, looking through the open bedroom door to find no signs of Brie.

You make your way back to the kitchen counter, hoping for some kind of clue as to where Brie could have gone to. Luckily, you find it; a piece of paper with a handwritten letter that you assume is meant for you.

_“Morning Sleepy Head,_

_Was in need of some coffee so I’m heading to the diner down the street. Come meet me there once you’re awake. I’ll order us some pancakes!_

_xx Brie”_

You assume she’s referring to the diner you and her had previously met up at to discuss the Sarah plan. Now that you think about it, you do realise that the diner is incredibly close to Brie’s apartment. That certainly explains why she likes to go there so frequently.

You smile to yourself as you read over the letter again. Your feelings towards Brie had grown confusing, but they were starting to become more and more clearer. So you can’t help but wonder if the fact that Brie wants to spend even more time with you means anything significant or if you’re just reading into things.

You move quickly, trying to make yourself at least somewhat presentable given that you’re still in the clothes you showed up in last night, and leave Brie’s apartment to head to the diner.

It’s only a short walk, and you don’t even allow yourself to overthink anything before you walk into the diner and start scanning for Brie. You spot her standing near the same table in the far corner that she was at the last time you were here. Only, you abruptly realise, she isn’t alone.

Standing opposite her is Sarah. The two of them are chatting animatedly, laughing among themselves. At one point Sarah reaches out and touches Brie’s forearm mid-laugh, and you can do nothing but watch their interaction from a distance.

The smile that you don’t even realise is on your face drops and you only watch them for another couple of seconds, but that short time makes you second-guess everything. Your heart sinks in such an indescribable way that you almost start worrying that you can’t breathe for a moment.

Without even thinking about it, you’re already turning to leave, just at the same moment that Brie looks your way and notices you. She goes to wave at you but instead her brows furrow as she watches you turn and hurry towards the door you had only just entered through.

In the back of your mind you register her shouting your name, but there’s only one thought that demands every ounce of your attention, repeating itself over and over again.

_Why her?_


	4. Part 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter is here!! This was a fun one to write. Thank you to everybody who read it, and most importantly, thank you to everybody who liked/reblogged and gave me feedback!! You guys don’t know how important it is to writers. I look forward to hearing what you think of the last chapter! I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Please do not repost my writing anywhere without my permission.
> 
> Come find me on Tumblr to chat! @capcarolsdanver

You once again find yourself sitting on your own at the campus library, surrounded by textbooks that you’re trying to convince yourself to focus on. The rest of the weekend after you’d left the diner had been fairly uneventful, aside from the onslaught of texts and phone calls from Brie that you’ve been evading.

You weren’t trying to be hurtful in your actions, but seeing her and Sarah talking together, and standing so close, made you realise how careless you’d been. You had let yourself develop feelings for Brie. You’re certain of that now, after spending practically the whole weekend going over and over the reason why you’d run from the diner.

And now you’re just trying to protect yourself and give both you and Brie the time and space you think your friendship deserves, if you still can even call what you had a friendship. You know that if you continue the same kind of routine that you and Brie had fallen into, then it would only lead to more confusing, damaging feelings arising.

And that would be unfair to the both of you.

As if aware that your thoughts had drifted to her, Brie is suddenly sitting opposite you at the table, fixing you with a hard look.

You would be lying if you said you were shocked by the presence. You knew it was only a matter of time before she would confront you over your ghosting her.

“Well it’s good to know you’re alive,” she says. It’s hard to interpret her tone, especially because you refuse to meet her eyes. Partly because you’re still trying to keep your distance. But you do also still feel embarrassed by your dramatic exit only two days ago.

At the time, you hadn’t even been thinking about the repercussions, but after the fact, you had realised how confusing the situation may have been for Brie, especially with your radio silence afterwards.

“Hi,” you say sheepishly. You still hesitate to look at her but you already know that her hard stare doesn’t waver.

“That’s it?” Now you hear the snippiness of her tone. “You ignore me for two days and ‘hi’ is all you’ve got to say?”

“I wasn’t ignoring you,” you try, but she cuts you off quicker than you expect.

“Really? What do you call it, then?”

You stutter, failing to come up with an answer. You _were_ ignoring her, after all. Though you don’t want to admit that to her, because then you would have to explain _why_ you were ignoring her. And you’re fairly sure that would ten lead to you talking about seeing her and Sarah at the diner together, and what exactly that might mean.

“I was busy,” is all you can come up with. Brie scoffs from the other side of the table.

“You were too busy to let me know you were okay?” You sense a more fragile emotion leaking into her tone and finally you tentatively meet her gaze. “I was worried about you,” she admits softly, her vulnerability on full display.

“Well maybe you should stop worrying about me so much,” you bite out, immediately regretting your unintentionally heated response. Brie looks taken aback and you can practically see the wall she starts putting up around herself as her features harden.

“Yeah,” she says, her voice unnervingly dropping any signs of emotion. “Maybe I should.” She abruptly pushes her chair back to leave and you feel an incredible pang of guilt again.

“Brie, wait,” you say hastily. You half expect her to continue on her way without a second glance, but instead she freezes where she is. She looks at you expectantly. “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”

“You’re right. I didn’t.” Her words are clipped and you don’t blame her for her attitude at all. After all, it’s your feelings getting in the way of things, not hers.

“I’m an asshole.” You shake your head at yourself. “Forgive me?” You plead, your apologetic eyes on Brie. You watch her resolve begin to crumble and her tense muscles seem to relax a little. Eventually she nods.

“Okay. Only if you explain why you ignored me, though.” It’s a fair request, though of course you can’t exactly answer it truthfully.

“I didn’t lie when I said I was busy,” you decide to supply, even though you know full well you had spent the last two days hiding out in your dorm room doing almost nothing but thinking about how to deal with your emerging feelings for Brie. “I barely looked at my phone all weekend.”

She seems to accept your answer and turns to face you more directly again. “Well how about now? Are you too busy to go grab a coffee with me?” She is casual in the way she asks, though her tone betrays her in revealing a hint of nerves in her words.

You know you probably shouldn’t go. You know, really, you should be putting at least some distance between you and Brie to salvage the friendship and spare either of you hurt feelings. But then how were you ever expected to say no to her? Especially when she’s standing right in front of you and you still feel guilty about your behaviour over the last couple days.

You force yourself to hold in the sigh that you almost release, because of course you know you’re going to say yes to her.

————————

Coffee with Brie goes pretty well, if slightly less relaxed as your usual time spent with Brie is. You do feel better for agreeing to go, though, mainly because Brie seems much happier when you part ways than when she had first shown up to talk to you at the library that morning.

You avoided the topic of Sarah completely, and you’re not sure if it was intentional but Brie seemed to do the same, also. You’re not sure how to interpret that just yet, but you choose to ignore the gnawing feeling it gives you. Was she deliberately not bringing Sarah up around you for a reason? Or had she just perhaps not even thought to bring the other girl up in conversation?

You must admit, that possibility seems odd, seeing as it was literally the entire reason why you had started talking to Brie in the first place, and since a lot of the time you spent together hanging out was at parties where Sarah also was.

Though, of course, there were also the times you spent together where Sarah wasn’t even so much as mentioned. The movie night only a handful of nights ago immediately comes to mind.

You shake your head to clear your thoughts on your walk back to your dorm room after your final class of the day. This is the exact reason why you feel like you need to put some distance between you and Brie for a little while. This constant questioning over every interaction you and Brie shared would surely do no good for either of you in the long run.

Once you make it inside, you thankfully find your room empty. You do have a roommate, though you rarely see her at all, which works for you just fine. Especially when you have so much on your mind and want nothing more than to just be on your own. You throw your bag down next to your desk and throw yourself down on your bed, heaving out a heavy sigh before you fish your phone out of your pocket.

You’ve barely checked it all day, but you’re still surprised to see a text from Brie waiting for you.

_“I’m glad we’re okay.”_

You stare at the text for probably far too long. You’re not too sure how to interpret it, though maybe there isn’t really anything to interpret from the seemingly simple text.

_“Me too.”_

You bite your lip anxiously, knowing that Brie will likely reply at any moment, but feeling entirely unprepared for it. On one hand, you could so easily fall back into your easy pattern of talking with Brie, but on the other hand, you are fully aware that you have to keep some kind of boundary between the two of you right now.

When you do receive another text from her a moment later, you again stare at the words staring back at you on the screen.

_“So, what are you up to tonight? Impromptu movie night?”_

You so badly want to say yes. The last movie night had been _so_ nice, and you had loved the time spent with Brie. But then what happened shortly after that is in your head again, and that’s enough to make your mind up for you. You certainly don’t want any kind of reenactment of the diner incident, especially if Brie and Sarah have taken the next step and have started talking as you suspect they may have.

_“I can’t, I have to study tonight :(“_

Another easy lie that goes towards putting some space between the two of you.

_“Aw, okay then nerd :P”_

You would normally chuckle at Brie’s light teasing, but all you do is sigh in disappointment, because you so wish you could be on your way to Brie’s for a movie night right now. Instead, you leave her text unanswered and put your phone aside, staring at the ceiling and silently praying for the universe to just give you a break.

Brie sends several more invites to hang out over the next few days, and you would pat yourself on the back for finding an excuse to turn them all down if it didn’t make you feel so terrible. You’re slowly starting to think the space from Brie is just making you want her even more.

As if on cue, your phone vibrates on your bedside table.

_“I hear there’s a party tonight…”_

_“Oh yeah?”_

In all fairness, you haven’t really been looking out for any parties lately. Mainly because you’ve been trying to somehow push away your feelings for Brie, and you doubt going with her to a party where Sarah would likely be would help you with that.

_“Yeah. I hear Sarah will be there…”_

You sigh, getting the confirmation that you aren’t at all surprised to receive. Of course this was all just another step in the Sarah plan. You don’t know how to respond, and you half consider just ignoring the message when Brie sends through another.

_“Will you go with me?”_

_“I don’t know”_

You don’t even really have any fake excuses left to use to get out of it, but you just hope that Brie picks up on your reluctancy to go and lets you off the hook.

_“Please?”_

Apparently not. Still, for a single word, her text does wonders at making your resolve slip. You close your eyes for a long moment and take a deep breath, slowly letting it out while you mentally prepare for the night ahead of you.

————————

You agree to meet Brie at the party, as it’s almost exactly halfway between your respective residencies. When you step through the open doorway, you’re hit with the overwhelming sounds of people yelling, desperately trying to be heard over the almost deafening volume of the music.

You keep a look out for Brie as you walk but there’s no need. You’ve only taken a few short steps when a gentle hand finds your waist and you twist around to see Brie’s wide smile.

“Hey,” she shouts, or at least you think she does. Seriously, if you made it through the night with your hearing intact it would be a miracle.

“Hey, yourself,” you shout back. Brie also seems to realise the problem with trying to have a conversation where you are. She looks around and spots a large open doorway opposite where you stand, grabbing your wrist to pull you towards it.

You make it into the kitchen, which you’re happy to discover doesn’t seem to have the same acoustics as the room directly attached to it because it is significantly quieter in here. There’s also only a small handful of people standing around, another startling contrast to the room full of people you had just come from.

Brie stops and takes a dramatic breath, quickly releasing it and she offers you an easy smile.

“You know, I kind of half expected you not to show up tonight,” she admits, but her smile stays in place. “I’m glad you did, though.”

You ignore the slight stab of guilt you feel, knowing full well that you couldn’t blame Brie for not even fully trusting that you would show up. You _have_ been dodging every plan she’s tried to make with you for the last week.

“Well, you _did_ say please,” you shrug and Brie’s smile grows in size, chuckling at you. You’re left standing facing each other for a moment in as much silence as the party will allow, and in the absence of talking, your eyes roam over Brie without your permission.

She looks _good_ tonight. Not that she hasn’t looked every bit as good every other time you’ve seen her, but there’s something about her tonight. You look at her face and notice what you think is the slightest bit of nerves, and she clears her throat and takes a look at all the alcohol sprawled across the countertop.

She turns and takes it upon herself to make up two drinks. You watch her as she focuses intensely at the task at hand, before she grabs the cups and hands one to you.

“Thank you,” you say, a small smile of appreciation, and you make a move to take a sip, though you never quite get there as you’re startled by the sudden outburst of Brie’s voice across from you.

“I need to talk to you about something.”

You slowly lower the cup, not moving your eyes from her as you study her carefully. She looks far too serious for your liking. You try to play it cool, though your stomach sinks, realising what she was likely about to tell you. That her and Sarah had hit it off that morning at the diner, and that they had continued talking and hanging out together. Brie had finally earned that date she was after. You should have wondered why Brie had asked you to a party where Sarah would be even though you saw with your own eyes how comfortable the two were when they talked now.

“Aren’t we already talking?” You say stubbornly, immediately trying to find a way to end this conversation before it can even begin. You are nervous to admit that you hadn’t thought about what your friendship with Brie might look like if her and Sarah actually did get together, especially considering your feelings for Brie that only seem to be growing stronger. You can’t hold eye contact with Brie anymore, so you look away at anything that isn’t her. Your eyes land on a figure in the adjacent room. Sarah.

In a feeble attempt to avoid dealing with this conversation for the time being, you point her out before Brie can even get another word out.

“I found Sarah,” you say. Brie barely even offers a glance over her shoulder towards the other girl before she’s looking back at you again. “Go get her,” you say, a forced smile on your face.

“I just need to-“

“Seriously, you’ll miss your chance if you don’t go to her now.” You pointedly keep your eyes on Sarah, avoiding looking directly at Brie at all cost. You can feel your own emotions quickly beginning to rile up and you know you have to put a stop to this before you lose it.

“Y/N, please.” She reaches for you and the second her hand makes contact with you something within you snaps.

“Brie, what are you still doing here?” You growl and you can physically see Brie recoil a little. “Just go to her. We both know she’s the only reason we’re friends, anyway, so you might as well stop wasting your time.”

At this, Brie takes a full step back, as if she’s just taken a physical hit. “The only reason?” She asks in disbelief, hurt crossing her face as her features crumple slightly.

You at least have the decency to feel a little guilty. You know you have the tendency to snap like this when you’re trying to protect yourself. You’re an emotional person; you either snap, or burst into tears when dealing with anxiety-ridden situations like this. But nonetheless, you feel completely terrible for so clearly hurting Brie’s feelings.

“Listen, Brie. You just have a good night, okay?” You say, remorse on your face before your feet carry you back through the sea of people and the thumping music until you’re back outside, keeping a brisk pace as you begin to walk down the road, in what you hope is the direction of your dorm.

“Where are you going?” You hear Brie’s distinctive voice from the front of the house, actually surprised that she’d even followed you this far. You ignore her, not even looking in her direction, figuring she’ll give up and head back inside. You’d already ruined the night, you don’t want to do any more damage.

Only a moment later, though, she’s catching your hand with her own and trying to slow you down. You can hear her rushed breath from behind you and at her continued efforts and you wonder if she’d had to run after you to catch you. You eventually sigh and come to a stop. As soon as she gets the opportunity, she stands in front of you, almost as if to stop any other attempts at running away that you might try.

“What the hell was that?” She exclaims. She looks somewhere between mad and concerned. You of course hadn’t planned on any of this happening, so you’re at a loss for what to do. You’ve barely had control over your emotions over the last week and it feels like you’re just about at your breaking point.

“Talk to me,” she whispers, and of course _that_ is what seems to break you as you feel tears sting at your eyes.

You slam them shut to stop any tears from leaking out, but when Brie tugs you into a tight hug, her cheek pressing against the side of your head, you can do nothing to stop the first tears from falling.

God, what the hell was happening to you tonight?

Brie shushes you calmly when she hears your cries, as if the night couldn’t get any more embarrassing for you.

“I’m sorry,” you sob into her shoulder. Her hand rubs soothing circles on your back and you focus on that, taking in some deep breaths. You seriously want to crawl into a dark hole somewhere out of pure embarrassment once you eventually calm down enough.

“You don’t need to apologise.” Brie breathes out, remarkably patient with the blubbering mess that you’ve become.

“I should have just listened when you wanted to tell me about you and Sarah, but instead I had to make the whole thing about myself. I’m such a bad friend.”

Brie’s hand on your back falters, stopping those soothing motions and she gently pulls away from you, her furrowed brow emphasising her apparent confusion.

“Me and Sarah? What are you talking about?”

“That’s what you wanted to tell me back there, right? That you and Sarah have started seeing each other?”

Brie doesn’t so much as blink at you as she continues staring at you, but you notice her features changing. One eyebrow seems to arch in question and one side of her mouth curves up in a kind of half smile.

“What gave you that impression?” She asks, and is that a hint of amusement you can hear in her voice?

“Um,” you start, blinking a few times and suddenly feeling very much put on the spot. “Well, I saw you both at the diner last weekend talking, and you both seemed awfully happy together,” you say, becoming more and more unsure of your words as you explain. Brie’s smile widens and you feel the need to further your explanation. “I saw her touch you on your arm.” You say it as if it explains everything, but it sounds ridiculous to say out loud now, especially with Brie looking at you like she was.

“Wait, is that why you left the diner that morning?” Brie asks, something clearly clicking in her head. When you remain silent and your cheeks redden slightly she lets out a surprised little laugh. “I knew you were ignoring me!”

“I wasn’t,” you mumble,but you know it’s no use.

“So you think that I started seeing Sarah, and chose not to tell you immediately, just because you saw us talking one time?”

“Oh god,” you say, even more embarrassed than when you’d just been crying into Brie’s top only a few moments ago. You drop your face into your hands. “I’m an idiot.”

“Not an idiot,” Brie says. You look back up at her and she’s wearing a cheeky kind of grin as she watches you. “But a little jealous, maybe?”

She’s right, of course, but you can’t just outright admit that to her. Instead, you change the topic in the first way you can think of.

“I suppose that explains why you wanted me to come here tonight, then.” Brie tilts her head curiously at you, waiting for you to clarify further. “I’m assuming you still want help with Sarah,” you shrug.

Brie watches you, her expression remaining unchanged. “You really think that, don’t you?”

It’s your turn to look at Brie quizzically now.

“Y/N, I’ve been trying to make plans with you all week. I asked you to come with me tonight because I thought if I told you Sarah would be here, you would say yes because of our agreement.” You still don’t quite follow, but Brie suddenly shifts from foot to foot nervously, so you give her a moment to continue. “I wanted to talk to you about something, and I knew it was a conversation for us to have in person.”

“So, you didn’t invite me here because of Sarah?” You ask dumbly, feeling several steps behind Brie. She smiles at you like she wants to laugh. When she reaches out for your hand, your breath catches slightly.

“Do you remember after that first party we went to together? We were walking back to your dorm and you asked ‘why her?’, remember?”

You nod. Of course you remember. It’s only the very thought that has been playing on repeat in your mind since the moment you asked it.

“Well, at the time I thought nothing of it. I mean, I didn’t really have a good answer, but I didn’t think I needed one. But that question just kept repeating itself in my head.” Huh, well at least it wasn’t just you who was apparently haunted by that thought. “It made me realise I was chasing some girl who I had already put up on a pedestal. I’d never even had a conversation with her before that night.”

Brie drops her gaze to your hand that she has clasped in her own and begins lightly fidgeting with your fingers. The feeling of it brings an instant smile to your face, despite how heavy this conversation feels.

“I was too focused on one girl who I didn’t even know, when really, it turns out I actually should have been focusing on another girl who I was actually enjoying spending time with.”

You pause, your mouth falling slightly open in shock as you take in Brie’s words.

“Wait, what?” You say, because… _what?_ She’s not implying what you think she is, right? “What about the diner? I saw Sarah there with you…”

“She wasn’t there _with_ me, we just ran into each other. Actually, I think that’s when I realised there weren’t any feelings there for me.” Brie clears her throat, looking up at you. “I like talking to her. She’s nice and everything. But when I saw you leave, _that_ was when I felt something.”

Well, this certainly was not how you predicted tonight to go. But the warmth that runs through you at Brie’s confession is probably one of the best feelings you’ve ever experienced, and you know this conversation is far from over. You’re still at a loss of words, though you hope the way you return Brie’s gaze is enough to tell her how you feel too.

“How about instead of asking me ‘why her?’ you ask me ‘why _not_ her?’”

You’re puzzled to say the least, but still do as Brie asks.

“Why not her?” You ask, and the smile that spreads on Brie’s face as her eyes travel over your features before returning to your eyes has you returning a nervous smile of your own. She steps closer, her hand dropping from yours in favour of resting it on your side instead.

“Because she’s not you,” she says, barely a whisper, and the blush that immediately warms your cheeks is no surprise. You genuinely don’t know how to react at this smooth-talking side of Brie that you’ve never really seen, so you duck your head, though it isn’t enough to hide the enormous smile your lips curve into.

“That’s so cheesy,” you say and Brie bursts into laughter, probably more because of her own nerves than you actually saying anything funny.

“Well my name _is_ Brie,” she shrugs. “I was born to be cheesy.”

“Oh my god.” You laugh now, too, lifting your head back up to meet Brie’s eyes again.

“Forget cliches, I’ll be exclusively bringing you _Brie_ -ches.” She grins, clearly finding herself hilarious, but you just shake your head at her, another laugh escaping your lips.

“Please shut up,” you chuckle, and immediately her eyebrows are dancing, a playful glint in her eyes. You know what she’s going to say before she’s even saying it.

“Make me.”

And it’s perhaps the biggest cliche of them all, but you would be lying if you say it doesn’t have an effect on you. As if on its own accord, your body presses forward. Brie, who anticipates the movement, slides her hands around your waist to pull you closer, and before you know it your body is pressed into hers and your lips meet hers in a searing kiss.

Her hands tighten on you and she hums against your lips. She pulls back only slightly and only to swipe her tongue across your bottom lip, and you’re eagerly opening your mouth for her, her tongue meeting yours in a kiss that seems too fast, but not fast enough.

The kiss feels like relief, but also excitement. It feels dangerous, but also safe.

It feels like home.

After a long, heated moment, you and Brie finally separate yourselves from each other. Your skin is flushed all over, both of you breathing heavily and her eyes don’t hide the fact that they roam freely over your body now.

“God, I’m glad you agreed to help me get with some other girl,” she says, her voice noticeably deeper now, and she easily pulls another laugh out of you. You shake your head at her and push her shoulder. She responds with a fond smile, and she lets her fingers dance down your arm before she reaches your hand, entwining your fingers with hers.

“Come on,” she says, leaning over to press an affectionate kiss to your cheek. “Let’s get out of here.”


End file.
